Never Stop
by Lockmeupinyourarms
Summary: Join Ian as he takes a stroll down memory lane and remembers the events that led him to this very moment. - Lucian. Based off the song Never Stop by Safety Suit. Enjoy!


**Ok so this was a request I got on my Tumblr for an Ian and Lucy one shot. I figured I'd share it with you guys as well! The song is Never Stop (Wedding Version) by Safety Suit if you guys want to check it out as you read! It's been a while since writing Ian and Lucy, so hopefully it isn't too bad! And if you guys wouldn't mind, reviews would be appreciated! Thanks for reading! **

**OH ALSO, I'm working on a quick Maia and David one shot that I want to post before the next chapter of Unconditionally, if anyone is interested. (: **

July 17th, 2020

"Everyone stand and join me as welcome for the very first time, Mr. and Mrs. Ian Harding!"

As we hear the DJ announce us, the double doors fly open revealing the grand ballroom full of our closest friends and family as they cheered for us.

I look down to Lucy and hold my arm out, my smile still as prominent as ever. This had been the best day of my life and I knew this smile wasn't going anywhere, anytime soon. "Are you ready Mrs. Harding?"

She looks up to me, smirking. "I was born ready. Lead the way Mr. Harding." She reaches up and loops our arms together.

I lean down and plant a soft kiss to her lips, earning quite a few 'awes' and a million flashes of different cameras from our group of friends and family.

We pull away from the kiss with me chuckling and Lucy turning a dark shade of red, before we turn to walk out to the middle of the dance floor.

After stopping to hug a few people we finally make our way to the middle of the floor and instantly everyone surrounds us as we prepare to dance our first dance as man and wife.

Without saying a word, I reach out and wrap my arm around Lucy's tiny waist, pulling her into me. Her arms go around my neck and she smiles up at me.

As the opening cords of the song fill the room, I manage to lose myself in her eyes. Those big, beautiful brown doe eyes. They're going to the death of me, but at least I'm going to die happily.

**This is my love song to you  
Let every woman know I'm yours  
so you can fall asleep each night, babe  
and know I'm dreaming of you more**

**You're always hoping that we make it  
You always want to keep my gaze  
Well you're the only one I see love  
And that's the one thing that won't change**

"_Hey man, it's about damn time you show up! Where have you been?" Keegan asks as he turns to walk away from one of the many crew people and begins to walk to me. When he reaches me he stops and we exchange a handshake. _

"_Oh you know, just enjoying be lazy and jobless __**since Mar finds it funny to try and kill me off**__," I say the last bit a little louder and catch Marlene's smirk out of the coroner of my eye. I watch her intently, waiting for her smart ass remark but just as she opens her mouth to say something, someone beats her to it. _

"_Oh suck it up Harding; you're still here aren't you?" _

_I quickly turn around to find Lucy and Sasha walking toward Keegan and me. _

"_Yeah only because you went fucking ballistic after I was killed." I retort and her eyes narrow in response. I raise a challenging eyebrow at her and I hear Keegan let out a chuckle behind me as Sasha rolls her eyes, laughing also. _

"_Don't flatter yourself Harding, Aria is the one who went ballistic, not me." _

"_Ouch," I mumble my hand flying to my chest as I pretend to be hurt. "I've missed you too Luce." _

_She rolls her eyes as she laughs along with Sasha. Eventually, they calm down and she opens her mouth to respond but a crew member walks up and taps her on the shoulder._

"_Miss Hale? They're ready for you in the hallway set." _

"_Alright, I'm coming." _

_The crew person nods their head and turns to walk off as Lucy turns to Sasha to give her a goodbye hug since she was wrapped for the day. When they pull back from the hug, they quickly make plans later for that night for Sasha's birthday. _

"_Luce, you ready to go?" Ashley asks, walking up to join our crowd. The two of them along with Shay were up to film this next scene. _

_Sasha waves goodbye to all of us before turning to leave as Lucy turns to face Ashley. She reaches over and the two link arms turning to walk away. "Yeah, let's go." _

_I stand rooted in my spot as I watch them walk away. Why? I don't know, but I couldn't look away. Something was different about her and it was slowly driving me crazy. I wanted nothing more than to run after her, slam her up against the lockers and kiss her, but I knew that wasn't possible. Not with Lucy. It wasn't like that with her, so why was I feeling like this all of a sudden? _

_She and Ashley get half way down the hall before Lucy glances over her shoulder. She catches my eye and sends me a quick wink before turning the corner with Ashley. _

_God, that didn't help any. _

_I continue to stand and stare at the corner that the two of them had disappeared around moments earlier and was only brought out of my head when I felt a slap on the shoulder. _

_I turn to look to see who had done just so, to find Keegan's hand still resting on my shoulder. I looked up to him and he wore a smirk. _

"_What?" _

"_Man," He shakes his head, trying not to laugh. "You've got it bad." And with that, he turns around and walks off, leaving me standing alone in a crowd of crew and extras. _

_I turn back to the corner to find a camera man stepping around it, followed by Lucy, Shay and Ashley as they delivered their lines. Knowing they were going to stick to that part of the hallway only, I opted to stick around and watch them …. Well, watch Lucy. She was truly such an amazing actress and she always amazed me at her many talents. _

_I hear the director yell cut from across the set and the girls instantly break, transforming right back into themselves instead of their characters. _

_Shay and Ashley stand next to Lucy, talking about who knows what. Lucy pretends to be interested, but for a second, her eyes float across the set and lock with mine. _

_The second she realizes I had been watching, watching her, she smiles and it warms my heart. _

_Ok so Keegan was right. I have it bad. _

**I'll never stop trying  
I'll never stop watching as you leave  
I'll never stop losing my breath  
Every time I see you looking back at me  
And I'll never stop holding your hand  
I'll never stop opening your door  
I'll never stop choosing you babe  
I'll never get used to you**

_We were only two episodes into season five when the news broke that Lucy had a boyfriend. Jordan something another. _

_Apparently, they had been dating since about a month after we wrapped season four, and she hadn't told any of us. She said she wanted to make sure it was going to stick before she introduced him to her friends, since her last relationships had ended so badly. It was understandable and everyone took a liking to him. Well, almost everyone. _

_I didn't, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why. Part of me didn't trust him but honestly I think it was because I didn't want her to have a boyfriend. This if I might say so myself, was completely screwed up. Lucy and I weren't together and I had a girlfriend, a very serious girlfriend that I had been with for a long time. Why did I care so much about her relationship? _

_I don't know, but I did. She was so happy that it killed me. Sure, as long as she was truly happy, then I would be happy but at the same time, I wanted to be the one that was putting that smile on her face. _

"_Ian have you seen Lucy?" Marlene asks, walking up to me, where I was sitting in my chair off set. _

"_Uh, not since this morning." I tell her sitting my cup down in its holder. "Why, what's wrong?" _

_She shakes her head as she whips out her phone. She begins to dial who I was assuming was Lucy's number as she spoke. "She's up to film the next scene with Holly and nobody can find her. She never showed up to hair and make up for her change over. It's really starting to freak me out." She brings the phone to her ear and waits, hopeful that she would pick up. Her face shows defeat when Lucy doesn't answer. Instead of leaving a message, she just hangs up and stuffs her phone back into her pocket. _

"_Well why don't you try her dressing room and the food? I'll help you look for her." I say standing up. _

_She nods and turns to walk off. "Alright, let me know if you find her alright?" _

"_I will," I tell her turning and heading toward where I knew I would find her. It was where she always snuck off when she needed some time to herself or a quiet place to think. _

_A few minutes later I step onto the set of Ezra's apartment and smile when I find Lucy curled up on the brown leather couch that we have filmed so many scenes on more times than I can count. _

_I quietly make my way across the set and sit on the coffee table in front of it. _

_She slowly looks up and we lock gazes, and my breath catches in my throat when I take in her tear stained cheeks. Despite her state, she was still the most beautiful woman I had ever seen as she lied there in her sweats, her hair up in a messy bun and her face makeup – less since she had yet to visit hair and makeup and wardrobe._

_Within a second, I was kneeling down on the ground in front of her. "Luce what's wrong? What happened?" I ask using the sleeves of my hoodie to wipe her tears away._

_She shakes her head as her eyes tear up again._

"_No Lucy," I tell her as I stand up and move her around so that I was sitting on the couch and she was curled into my side comfortingly. "Tell me what happened, please. I can't help you if I don't know." _

_She lets out a heavy sigh as she turns so that she could look up at me. "Jarred and I broke up." _

_**Jarred**__, that was his name. Oops. _

_I feel bad for her as I take in her expression and I suddenly feel like the biggest ass on the face of the planet. I was the one person who she wanted to share that relationship with and I refused to listen. It was clear to me now that she had truly cared for him and of course, I hadn't listened. He had made her happy. _

_Right then and there, I swore to myself I would kill him if he hurt her. _

"_He did this to you?" I ask, reaching out and wiping more tears from her face. It was no use; more just kept coming and coming. _

_She lets out a sigh and nods her head. "Yeah, yeah he did." _

_Yep, I was going to kill the ass. Nobody and yes, I mean __**nobody**__, gets away with hurting this girl._

"_What did he do?" _

"_He cheated on me," _

_Ouch, poor thing._

"_What?"_

"_Come to find out he had another girlfriend the entire time we were together, and that she was pregnant. Very pregnant" She looks down and shakes her head as more and more tears stream down her face. "I'm so stupid. I should have seen this coming. This shit always happens to me."_

"_Hey!" I interject and her head instantly snaps up to look at me. _

"_Stop it,"_

_She opens her mouth to speak but I shake my head. _

"_No! Stop it! Stop talking about yourself like that Lucy! You are NOT stupid. Do you hear me?" She stays silent, staring at me. "Look, I don't understand why you always get the shit of the stick, it's not fair but it has nothing to do with you. You are the most amazing person I know. You're beautiful, you're smart and you're so unbelievably talented. You've got it all and anyone that doesn't want to be with you is a fucking moron okay? You're the most caring person I know and you give every relationship the most that you can. You're truly the perfect girlfriend and one day you are going to find someone who appreciates all that and isn't scared to be your girlfriend because let's face it, they have a right to be threatened by you. You're THE Lucy Hale and you're kinda sorta amazing." _

_At that, she giggles slightly and I smile knowing I had achieved my goal. _

"_Seriously though Lucy, everyone has to kiss their fair share of toads to find their perfect match. Just think of this as you are one step closer okay?" _

_She looks up to me, a small smile playing on her lips, and nods her head. _

_I make sure our eyes were locked before continuing. I wanted to get my point across. "You're amazing Lucy, you deserve someone who is truly amazing and who will truly love you and take care of you. Never accept anything less of that alright?" _

_She nods her head. "I promise." She reaches up and wipes her eyes, having stopped crying. "Thank you so much Ian." She moves across the small space in between us and wraps her arms around my neck, hugging me tightly. _

_I wrap my arms around her waist and hug her back as tight as I can. I close my eyes and allow myself to enjoy this small moment. _

_Lucy pulls away a few minutes later, but doesn't move to move away very far. Her face was inches from mine and her eyes kept darting back and forth between my own eyes and my lips._

_She bites her bottom lip and I struggle to focus in my head. As much as I wanted this to happen, it couldn't. She had just gotten out of a serious relationship where her heart had been shattered. She was very vulnerable right now and it wouldn't be fair of me to take advantage of that. _

_But before I could stop her, she had leaned in and pressed her lips to mine. _

_Letting all caution fly out the window, I return the kiss and the next thing I knew, she was sitting in my lap with her hands on either sides of my face while my left hand rested on her hip and my other was on the small of her back. _

_Reluctantly though, I pull away knowing one of us had to think straight. _

_Lucy instantly looks defeated. "What?" _

"_Lucy," I shake my head, hating myself more than anything right now. "We can't…" _

"_Why not?" She asks, her shoulders slumping. _

"_Because you just got your heart broken, this is the last thing we need to be doing right now." _

_At my answer she moves off of my lap to sit back on the couch and I jump up, pacing back and forth. _

"_I – I don't understand Ian. I thought you were – I thought you." She shakes her head when she comes up short of what she wanted to say. _

_I instantly stop pacing and turn to look at her. "Oh gosh Lucy, yes. Yes a million times yes. You know I love you; I love you more than I have ever loved anyone but you're vulnerable right now. You're not thinking. This asshole broke your heart so you're just trying to fill the void and Lucy, as much as I love you, I don't want to be just a rebound. I want to be with you, I really do, but I want to really be with you, not just until you're happy again." _

"_But what if I want to be with you too?" She asks standing up and walking toward me. She reaches out and takes my hand in hers casing my eyes to snap down to where our hands were intertwined. _

_I let out a shaky sigh as I look back up at her. Her eyes were boring into mine, waiting for my answer. "Lucy I have honestly waited forever to hear you say that and I so badly want to believe you right now but part of me doesn't want to because I'm afraid I'm going to end up hurt. But I'm going to make you a deal okay?" _

_She nods, staying silent. _

"_For right now, let's forget this ever happened okay?" _

_The small smile that had been forming on her lips suddenly disappeared. _

"_Wait!" I tell her squeezing her hand and she looks back to me. "I want you to take some time to yourself and get back to the normal Lucy that we all know and love okay? Take some time to get over Jarred and move on with your life, and then, BUT ONLY THEN, if you still feel the same way about me, if you still want to be with me, you come and find me okay? I want you so bad Luce, but I'm not going to pressure you and I'm not going to take advantage of you because you're so vulnerable. I want you to be happy and I want you to think long and hard about this because I only want you to choose me because you want to be with me, but because of me or anyone else okay?" _

_She nods, a small smile gracing her lips once more. "I promise," She whispers as she reaches out and wraps her arms around me, hugging me tightly. _

_Like before, my arms go around her tiny stature and I hug her back. _

_When we pull back, she starts gathering her stuff so she can head to get her hair and makeup done, since we both know Marlene is going to be majorly pissed off at Lucy putting today's schedule behind so much. _

"_Hey Ian?" She says, stopping and turning to me. _

_I look up to her from my phone; I had texted Marlene to tell her I had found Lucy and that she was heading to get ready. "Yeah?" _

"_What about Sophia?" _

_I shrug. "She and I broke up a few months ago." _

_Her eyes widen in shock. "Oh wow, I'm sorry." _

_A smirk graces my lips and I shrug again. "Really? Because I'm not." _

**And with this love song to you  
It's not a momentary phase  
You are my life, I don't deserve you  
But you love me just the same  
And as the mirror says we're older  
I will not look the other way  
You are my life, my love, my only  
And that's the one thing that won't change**

_It's been six months since that night and honestly, I'm starting to think that Lucy has rethink the entire thing and doesn't want to be with me anymore. She's back to her normal goofy self, and we've gone back to being really great friends on and off set, but she hasn't given me any hints at wanting a relationship, so I hadn't pushed her. If she didn't want to be with me, I wasn't going to push it or make her feel bad. The heart wants what the heart wants, and hers clearly didn't want mine. No matter how much mine wanted hers. _

_I was having a boring Friday night. I hadn't been needed on set today so I had woken up, taken the dogs on a hike and then ran some errands before having lunch with Tyler. I had returned home around dusk and had taken a shower before plopping down on the couch with some take in. _

_I wasn't even paying attention to the TV and my box of half eaten food was resting on the coffee table in front of me when the doorbell rang. _

_The dogs instantly start barking and take off toward it as I reluctantly push myself up off the couch and make my way to the door after them. _

_I unlock it and swing it open to find Lucy standing in the doorway. _

_Her eyes lock with mine and the next thing I know, her lips are on mine. _

_I don't question it, so I reach out and wrap my arms around her, pulling her flush against me. We both pull back shortly after due to the lack of oxygen. _

_I raise an eyebrow at her in confusion. _

_She smiles, and my heart starts racing instantly. "I'm ready." _

**I'll never stop trying  
I'll never stop watching as you leave  
I'll never stop losing my breath  
Every time I see you looking back at me  
And I'll never stop holding your hand  
I'll never stop opening your door  
I'll never stop choosing you babe  
I'll never get used to you**

**You still get my heart racing  
You still get my heart racing for you  
You still get my heart racing  
You still get my heart racing  
For you**

"I love you so much Ian," Lucy mumbles, shifting her head up so that she could look at me. She had been previously resting her head on my chest as we danced with all of our friends and family looking on.

"I love you too Luce," I tell her before leaning down and planting my lips to hers.

When we pull back, she was wearing a giant smile. She moves back so that her head was resting on my chest again.

I rest my chin on the top of her head as we dance on.

"You know we owe Marlene more than anything right?"

"What?" I ask in confusion. "Why?"

She leans back, once again staring me in the eyes. "Because if she hadn't decided to try and kill Ezra off, I would have never realized how much I loved you."

I stare at her in amazement, I had never known that.

"Seriously, I wasn't acting that night Ian. I didn't realize it back then, but I wasn't. It was all me. The thought of something happening to you scared the living shit out of me and I realized just how much I loved you that day."

Not knowing what to say to that, I lean down and kiss her again.

When we pull back, my smile had someone what turned into a smirk. "But I totally knew it! You did go fucking ballistic on me! Marlene brought me back because you wanted me back, not because Aria wanted it." I couldn't help but tease her.

"Oh shut up!" She says rolling her eyes at me playfully before resting her head on my chest again.

I let out a chuckle as my chin comes to rest on the top of her head. "I'm kidding baby, but just so you know, that was the moment I was in love with you too. Seeing you cry and freak out, it made me want to wrap you in my arms and protect you no matter what. I never want to see you like that again."

I feel her smile against my chest. "You're perfect."

"No my dear," I lean down to whisper in her ear. "You are." _**And I will never stop believing it. **_

**I'll never stop trying  
I'll never stop watching as you leave  
I'll never stop losing my breath  
Every time I see you looking back at me  
And I'll never stop holding your hand  
I'll never stop opening your door  
I'll never stop choosing you babe  
I'll never get used to you**


End file.
